Who is Christopher Columbus?
- The beginnings
- Achievements
- personal life
- Death
- facts
- Quotes
An explorer, sailor and colonizer from the Italian Republic of Genoa. Columbus discovered the Americas, thereby establishing foundations for European settlement in the New World. Columbus crossed the Atlantic four times with financial support from Spanish Catholic monarchs.
About Christopher Columbus
The famous Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the “New World” or the Americas on a trip sponsored by King Ferdinand, King of Spain in 1492. Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who sailed in 1492 across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in Santa Mary alongside the ships of Pinta and Nina in the hope of finding a new way to India.
Between 1492 and 1504, he made a total of four trips to the Caribbean and South America, thanks to him the conquest of the Americas for European colonialism.
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The beginnings of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa or what is now called Italy, and in his twenties he moved to Lisbon - Portugal, and was then resettled in Spain, which remained his homeland throughout his life.
Columbus first went to the sea as a teenager, and participated in many commercial trips in the Mediterranean and Aegean, and one of these trips was to the island of Chios in modern Greece which brought him closer to Asia.
His first trip to the Atlantic Ocean was in 1476 and almost cost him his life with a merchant fleet he was sailing with, as he was attacked by French pirates off the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned and Columbus had to swim to the Portuguese shore. He was on his way to Lisbon - Portugal, where he eventually settled and married Philippa Perestrillo.
The couple had one son named Diego, who was born around 1480, and his wife died shortly after, then Columbus moved to Spain, and his second son was Fernando, who was born from an affair in 1488 with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.
After participating in many other missions to Africa, Columbus gained knowledge of the currents of the Atlantic Ocean flowing from east and west and from the Canary Islands.
Achievements of Christopher Columbus
The Asian islands near China and India were a legend famous for its spices and gold, making them an attractive destination for Europeans. Since Islamic hegemony over trade routes across the Middle East made travel to the east difficult, Columbus set a path to sail west across the Atlantic to reach Asia, considering it would be faster and safer, and estimated that the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan was about 2,300 miles.
Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic, writing first to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa and finally to Venice. He was rejected every time.
In 1486 he went to the Spanish Queen Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand, King of Aragon, but their focus at first was on war with Muslims in Andalusia, and naval experts were suspicious and hesitant, so Columbus was initially rejected.
Columbus continued to press the royal court, and shortly after the Spanish army seized the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January of 1492, the two monarchs agreed to fund his expedition. In August of 1492, Columbus left Spain with three ships, sailing in Santa Maria, with pinta and nene side by side.
36 days after sailing west across the Atlantic, Columbus and several crew members have arrived on an island in The Bahamas today, promptly claiming to be Spain.
There they met a friendly group of citizens who were open to trade with seafarers, exchanging glass beads, cotton balls, parrots, and spears. Europeans observed gold coins that the indigenous people wore for decoration.
Columbus and his men continued their journey and visited the islands of Cuba (which were believed to be mainland China), Hispaniola (which is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and Columbus thought it might be Japan), and met with indigenous leaders.
During this time, the reefs destroyed Santa Maria off the coast of Hispaniola, and with the help of some islanders the Columbus men succeeded in saving what they could and build the settlement of Vila de la Navidad from the ship's wood.
Thirty-nine men remained to occupy the settlement, and convinced that his exploration had reached Asia, he had sailed back home with the remaining two ships.
Columbus returned to Spain in 1493, gave a somewhat exaggerated report, and received a warm welcome from the Royal Court.
In 1493, Columbus returned to the seas on his second voyage to explore more islands in the Atlantic Ocean, and upon his arrival in Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew discovered that Navidad had been destroyed with the slaughter of all sailors.
Columbus rejected the wishes of the Queen in which she attacked slavery, and imposed a policy of forced labor on Aborigines to rebuild the settlement and explore gold, believing it to have a profound profit. His efforts led to small amounts of gold and much hatred among the indigenous population. Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his two brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, to rule the Hispaniola settlement, and sailed briefly around the Greater Caribbean islands.
And Columbus did not reach the mainland until after his third trip, and explored the Orinoco River in present-day Venezuela. Unfortunately, the conditions in Hispaniola settlement have deteriorated to the point of fighting, as settlers claim that they have been misled by Columbus's allegations of wealth and complained of mismanagement of his brothers.
The Spanish crown sent a royal official to arrest Columbus and strip him of his authority, and he returned to Spain bound to face the royal court, and the charges were later dropped, and for
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